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Tales Post 2
Ameryl has been exiled from Hypericum by her sister, Imeryn, and comes across the planet Oeurwoud where she opts to remain a while, within Aggran Forest, to explore her new life without the confines of royal position. When she gets into an argument with her butler, Harold Haroldson, she suspects he's spying for her sister and dismisses him. With that dismissal, she chooses to release all of her retainers, possessions and fortune and, instead, seeks out El'Psassment where she believes the truth of existence is to be found. She travels through New Sima until, exhausted, she finds herself at temple steps. A temple devoted to Nothing. Post The Story of Ameryl Becoming Nothing This post continues from Pan Post 58. The trees tower high into the sky, stretching their tallest branches almost to the clouds themselves. While those upper branches would be out in the cold air, Aggran Forest's bowels are hot and wet. Smaller plants grow everywhere and the stone path from the gazebo to the villas winds its way through the natural beauty of the landscape where those plants and flowers creep or hang over the path. Ameryl is wearing a sarong across her waist and a cropped top to give her belly some cooling in the open air. Birds twitter above her head before fluttering off, startled by her approach. Aside from tourists, the world is a paradise for its own natural ecosystem and zero sentient life to intrude upon it. Having lived a life surrounded by people, holed up in man-made palaces and the rules and restrictions of the social order - right now Ameryl feels a sense of great freedom. She has no responsibilities. She has no one to please. She has no one to impress. She can break all of the rules because there are no rules here. She plucks up her courage and spreads a malicious grin across her pretty face. She spits. She then gasps at her own wickedness but follows it with a sly chuckle. She can spit everywhere and no one will judge her! Ameryl: '"Fu fu fu!" She throws a rock at a bush. She rolls around in the dirt. She licks a tree. ''Ameryl:' "Ew. Okay, people don't lick trees because it's gross not because it's impolite. Lesson learnt." ''She skips down the stone path, ducks under a overhanging shrubbery that protrudes from the massive girth of a tree, and spies the villas. A tall man with a pencil thin moustache spots her and instantly comes scurrying over, wild-eyed. Ameryl groans. Before they had come to Oeurwoud the sight of this man had been a pleasure. It brought things like cakes and tea. He did things like opening letters or stoking fires when necessary. After just a few days on this planet, however, she realises she doesn't need him to do those things. She is capable of getting her own tea. She is capable of stoking her own fires. And, in fact, she '''wants '''to. The small satisfaction of performing tasks has become an infatuation. The thrill of accomplishment after effort is almost addictive. She seeks out that sense of victory and triumph. So now Harold Haroldson has become a frustrating bore. Harold: "Your Highness!" Ameryl: "I am not a queen any longer, Harold." Harold: "Sorry. Yes. I forget. Forgive me madam--" Ameryl: "I am not even a lady, Harold. I have no lands, no titles. I am no more a madam than I would be a highness." The man straightens up with indignity. Before he can protest she shakes her head irritably and walks past him towards the villas. They've been built in an open area where no tree has taken up the valuable space. A river drops down several miniature waterfalls and the villas themselves sit at its banks, with a few actually straddling the river as it runs beneath the house. She was able to rent the whole set for several months from the company that owns them and it was then that the concept of money first crossed Ameryl's mind. Before now money was something other people used on her behalf and, as ruler, everyone's money was her money. Now she has her own money. And while that was interesting, she understands that it is limited and will, one day, be gone. She has no idea how people are supposed to get more of it. The houses are made from the bark of the trees here. Some of the trees are so thick and strong that the cutters only need slice sections from the trees to turn into wood, allowing the trees to continue standing instead of being chopped down. The wood is strong and, when treated, is quite fragrant. Harold: "Madam. Madam! I have to tell you that the company called to warn us of impending doom!" Ameryl stops. Ameryl: '"What? What is it?" Harold looks terrified. Harold: '''"Bad weather." '''Ameryl: "... you mean a storm?" Harold: "I mean, humidity. It will ruin your complexion if you aren't more careful my lady. Already I can see your skin is becoming worn by the sun. You are becoming, I am sorry to say, tanned." Ameryl groans and continues towards the villas. She stops and looks at them. She realises that Harold is an idiot but the company wouldn't inform them of this 'bad weather' if it wasn't serious. They had mentioned the possibility of more unpleasant levels of humidity in the coming months and she doesn't like the idea of more water clinging to her skin than already is. Ameryl: "And where should I go now then?" She considered to herself but Harold, in his eagerness to serve, jumps at the chance to intrude on her thoughts. 'Harold: '"Perhaps a nice city on a more civilised world would do my lady much good. I could create a list of possibilities for you to choose from?" Even his voice, which is forced into a state of inoffensive cadence is becoming offensive with its inoffensiveness. He has served Ameryl and her twin sister Imeryn for many years, forever at their side at any given moment. After her sister no longer wished to share authority over their kingdom, Imeryn defeated Ameryl in magical battle and exiled her twin - forcing Ameryl out of the life she had ever known and off into the universe. Yet she had been surprised that Imeryn sent along Harold instead of keeping him for herself. Imeryn had been 'good enough' to allocate funds and transport for Ameryl but giving her such an important member of staff had seemed odd. ''Ameryl:' "No, Harold. You can't dictate my life. I will choose a location by myself." '''Harold:' "My apologies my lady! I didn't mean to suggest-- I just wanted to help find a place that would be most comfortable for my lady--" Ameryl: "You mean a place where I would cause the least trouble for my sister?" Harold: '''"Not at all! Though that would be good, I wouldn't want any harm to co--" '''Ameryl: "You're dismissed, Harold." Harold: "Dism... very well, my lady. I shall wait for you to name your departure time--" Ameryl: "I mean you're dismissed from my service." There's a very long pause. Ameryl knows the man is wondering if there's any way of salvaging the situation so that he can continue his mission but after a long, heavy minute of silence he just turns and walks away. Ameryl sighs with relief. She wasn't sure if Imeryn had actually tasked him to assassinate her if she refused to cooperate with him. That's one less string her sister has attached to her. She must remove the rest. Everything associated to Imeryn must be severed. Ameryl is no longer a highness. No longer a lady. She has no work, no home, no lover, no family, no friends, no purpose. She is nobody. She is nothing. Or at least, she intends to become nothing. ------- Ameryl left the planet Oeurwoud behind. Then she left her staff behind, all with tickets for the first inter-universal vessel to take them back to their own universe and under the thumb of Ameryl should they all wish it. Of course they were considered 'sympathisers' by Imeryn so they may not wish to return to her tyrannical rule. Their choice. She even gave them all of her money to share between them. Apparently it was 'a lot' but Ameryl has no grasp of wealth and so just let them have it anyway. At least some people can become happy from her exile. The final step was to sell the royal liner that she had used to travel from her own empire to non-imperial space in a universe far, far away. That ship had been very useful and grand but she couldn't look at it and not think of that which she has lost. Even though she has gained freedom, she has lost much more beside. She wonders if freedom is better as she considers the things she loved in her old life. Then she remembers it doesn't matter, there's no going back. She sold the royal liner for a great deal of money and began to travel via taxi services across the multiverse until she found the place she has been searching for. A place of learning. A place where the secret to existence lies. El'Psassment. The spacedock for multiversal ships is a sprawling affair that looks to be highly advanced, and yet somehow backward. It's exceptionally busy. Far busier than anywhere she's ever been before as people pour in and out every which way. There are too many terminals for her to keep track of and too many people to navigate efficiently. She's swept along several times before she finds a helpful kiosk to point her in the correct direction. She did see a few security guards jump on two greys at one point for being alleged terrorists and a drow was stopped as she tried to smuggle something through customs. Another passenger, of a species she doesn't recognise, was arguing with staff over his religious freedom to carry a flamethrower onto a vessel. She peers out of the windows of a long corridor and sees, not too far away, ancient edifices of an old empire that has been long gone and subsumed by the city of New Sima. It's blood red towers and monuments seem very structured and ordered in its design - unlike the new civilisation that has risen above its corpse. The remains of the Omega Reich are considered something of a tourist attraction by many, a museum by others or a subject of political debate for others. Once through the outer perimeter she is granted a cityscape view of New Sima. Its a sprawling metropolis of miss-matched works, like a quilt sewn together by several seamstresses, each with their own fashionable intent - resulting in a garish, eclectic mess. She can see nothing of what Ameryl would have considered grand or even charming but it is certainly vibrant. She can see all manner of people, them all being just as diverse as the architecture surrounding them. The only real uniformity she can judge is its lack of uniformity. She requests transportation to El'Psassment and she's directed to a smelly, crowded bus. She has never ridden such a vehicle before and while she wishes she could be enthusiastic about this new mini adventure, the thought of getting shoved into such a tiny can with a bunch of strangers is unpleasant. She sucks in her breath and braves the danger. The bus bounces down the wide roads. While there seems to be lots of space, there are also a lot of vehicles both before them and above them. She looks up to see the flying cars and buses are in just as much of a traffic jam as the land based counterparts. She imagines it might, at least, be a little cooler up there. She sits and waits. To pass the time she watches people and places through the open window. She recognises many species now, while once she had just considered anything that wasn't a white human to be 'something exotic'. Now she has come to find that not only are non-white humans perfectly normal, so too are the betentacled, the robotic, the furried and even the butt-faced. She has no idea why some species seem to have anuses where their faces ought to be but some god somewhere apparently decided that was a good idea. There's a drow. Two drow. Three drow. There's a falleen. There's a robot. Two robots. Three robots.... a gaggle of robots actually. If gaggle is the right word for robots. She would try to count the humans but that would be very difficult. There's just too many of them and to make it worse there are so many aliens that just look like humans anyway. Even '''she '''looks human. The bus skids to a stop and most of the people fall off the bus rather than get off. The station is, however, exactly where she wants to be. She looks up at the temple. She staggers up to the gate, her legs feeble from her long bus ride. Once Ameryl was considered the very picture of princessly beauty. Now she looks like some wild thing that has managed to drag itself up to the temple steps. Many people are here. Most are taking pictures. She's tired and dirty but she has to talk to someone. She needs guidance, some deeper truth and understanding of who she is, what she is and where she should be going. She looks up into the eyes of a man standing at the top of the short steps. He gives her an enigmatic expression and, as though he has read her mind, he says; ''Man: '"You are Nothing and you are destined for... Nothing. You came '''from Nothing and you will return to Nothing when the time comes. Everything does. It is a hard truth, I know. If you wish to understand more, then please... take my hand." Notes Britt's Commentary "The concept of the post was to have Ameryl move onto a new phase of her life, separated from the past where she is defeated and disgraced. We see Ameryl at her most innocent here, long before she has accepted the darker morality that she would later display as Arm of The Imperium. This first entry is the set up for the rise of Ameryl. I wanted to utilise Extended Universe materials and went with the recently created New Sima/El'Psassment specifically because of its Nothing religion that would suit Ameryl very well given the circumstances. It also allows me to add to that material, developing and better establishing it, through Ameryl's time spent there." ~ Britt the Writer Category:Post Category:Tales Post